Not What They Seem, Part I
by Grey Lady
Summary: I actually already posted this, but it'slonger and edited and i just changed where the story was headed. anyhow, there raisti and dalamar, what more could you ask for?


Not what they seem, Part I  
  
  
Here's the deal. I posted this already, under a different name, but I changed it. It takes place five or ten years after everyhing else. Let's just assume nothing up there effected Ice Wall, shall we? So, Dalamar has vanished to reappear over there, Raisti did more prodding than was good him, and ended up rather sick. So, please r/r.  
  
Snow sifted gently through the clouds, falling across the ragged mountains. They stretched and peaked towards the heavens like clasped hands, the fingers reaching up to brush against the clouds. A dragon, soaring overhead, would have looked to see shadows fall across the brilliance as the ice fell away from the ocean and rose into hills and mountains. A small harbor sat hidden along the coast, filled with black winged ships that seemed like little holes on the crystal water. Surrounded the ships, two lone buildings stood, one alive with noise, the other dark and silent.  
  
The noisy one was called the Inn of the White Dragon, though by upper world standards it wasn't noisy at all. Only because of the hanging silence of the snow covered land was the noise inside audible, and even the occasional squawk of a Snow Bird or the even rarer roar of the white dragon.  
  
Dim lights lit the inn, sending rays across the fading yellow wall paper. Someone observant might perceive a swirling pattern of snow beneath the dirt.   
  
Aura stared absently at the spiraling funnels, ignoring the few other customers in the room. Hellsgate, as it was named by someone with a sense or irony, was one of the few ports in Ice Wall, but then again, very few could find the ports, and even less actually wanted to come. So Aura was surprised when a stranger proceeded into the bar.  
  
It was two strange people, actually, but Aura had seen odder. She defined stranger by one who was clearly not native, and by his dark hair and pointed, elven features, the first figure clearly did not belong here.  
  
The second one was most definitely native to the frigid regions of Krynn, if long, silvery hair was any hint. He was much taller than the other one, and impossibly lean for the amount of strength seemed to posses in his walk. He walked with a slight prowling grace, almost stalking. The shorter figure also moved gracefully across the dirty floors, but he moved with a lighter, more lithe step.  
  
Aura watched them with interest, her face concealed by the hood of her heavy fur coat. The two men, as she assumed the were, glanced suspiciously around the room, then moved up to the bar. A small kender, a creature from the upper worlds, was chatting avidly about his many adventures to an irritated bartender. Grateful for an excuse to leave the bumbling kender, the bartender shifted hurriedly over to the newcomers, though not without first giving them an appraising look.  
  
He moved his hands, clearly offering them a drink. The taller man shook his head slowly, grey eyes glinting across the room around him. Not that there was much to see; a single kender, balancing precariously on a stool; two old men chatting fiercely in the corner booth; and a lone figured, heavily shrouded in cloaks, green eyes watching him unabashed from beneath the hooded depths.  
  
Salo met the gaze for a few moments, the turned back to the bartender, who was looking aggravated now that they had turned down the drinks.  
  
"C'mon, strangers," he addressed them with force joviality. "Nothing like Hellsgate whiskey to send fire to your bones. Warm you up in this cold place." He shivered. He wasn't native to the snows.  
  
Salo shook his head again. "No whiskey, thank you." His tone, though crisp and clipped, was the very ideal of politeness. "However, if you could direct us to a guide, we would be much obliged." Meeting the bartender's gaze, he slowly pushed a gold coin across the counter. The man's face lit up at once.  
  
"Hmm," he pondered fingering the coin with a certain greed. "Aura Landsaber's the closest you'll get round her, though I'm not sure where she's headed." He indicated the fur covered figure in the corner.  
  
The smaller figure bowed, speaking for the first time. "Much obliged." He swept around the stool a certain arrogance. The bartender scowled. Had he seen the swish of black robes beneath the heavy overcoat? No matter. One customer's money was good as the next.  
  
Aura watched as the two figures approached her. If naught else, it should prove interesting.  
  
The smaller one slid into the chair across from her while the large one straddled a chair from another table, sitting closer to her than she would have liked. His face was smooth and beardless, and pale, lit up by two grey eyes and shrouded by silver hair. The other man, the smaller one, kept his over coat wound tightly around him, but Aura thought she caught a glimpse of sharp, pointed ears. Uneasily, she fingered her own ears, ears that were more elflike than any humans should be. The small one watched her, a scowl creeping onto his face from the depths of the robes. He sniffed and turned his face away.  
  
"Please, do sit down." Sarcasm laid heavily in her voice. "Oh, but you already are. What do you want?"  
  
Salo smiled, a smile that would have charmed the darkest of dragons, the deadest of ghosts. He jerked his head towards the bartender, who was busy keeping the nosy kender away from his mugs. "The bartender says you might be heading south."  
  
Aura leaned back in her chair, studying him. "I might. What's it to you, stranger?" She emphasized the last word.  
  
The big man payed no heed to the edge in her voice. "Name's Salontius Brazen, or Salo. This is-" he scowled for a second, conjuring up a name. "Tarkis." The other man snorted softly. "And we can pay, well."  
  
Aura lifted her eyebrows. "Money's no good where I'm going, Salo. And even if I would take it, you have no money to give." Salo opened his mouth to reply, then closed it as he realized his purse was gone. His companion realized the same thing, to o his annoyance.  
  
"You half-breed-" Tarkis stopped short as Aura waved an unconcerned hand over towards the bar. Scowling, both men followed her indication to see the kender, singing softly to himself as her rummaged through coins that he had not previously had. Salo's hand went to his sword, Tarkis's to a wiry, silver staff.  
  
"Stop." Aura's voice was low and commanding. "Lay a hand on that kender and you can forget that passage through the mountain." Slowly, both men relaxed. Aura smiled. "Good. Jas, get over here." Still whistling to himself, the kender hopped off the stool and scurried over. He noticed the two figures scowls with a smile.  
  
"Here's your purses. They are yours, right? You really shouldn't leave them lying around like that. Someone might steal them. Good thing I came along." Jasplerius, as was his full name, stuffed his mouth full of the grapes left sitting at another table. Aura turned her attention back to the strangers.  
  
"So why should I bring you along with me?" Aura asked once more.  
  
Salo leaned forward, dropping his voice slightly into a low, menacing tone. The shadows on the wall seemed darker, more forbidding, than they had been before."Awfully dangerous for a young women to travel through these cold lands by herself. Never know who might be wandering around." Aura shivered as he leaned back, and his voice became normal again. "There's always safety in numbers."  
  
Aura's eyes flashed at the subtle threat. "I travel with the kender, and I can take care of myself." She stood up. "I think it's time for you to leave."  
  
Salo stood up, facing her. "We know the entrance to Dagon Mountain." His voice was low and enticing.  
  
"Why would I want to go there?" But this time, Aura's voice held a note of interest, buried beneath feigned annoyance.  
  
It was Tarkis who answered, not bothering to look up at her. "You want to know what happened to your mother," he told her mildly, as though bored with the matter.  
  
Aura froze. How could he have known about that? Her mother, one of the Askins, had disappeared ten years ago, leaving her to an unwilling relative. Brave Norela, eld blood running through her veins, gave her nine yearold daughter to her half sister and traveled in search of Aura's unkown father. Folks who saw her last claimed she was near the mysterious volcano, the one that heated up the winter land with it's red smoke.  
  
There would be time later to ponder how the man, who she was rapidly beginning to suspect as not man but elf, knew about the past she had locked deep within the center of her own heart.  
  
"I have to make several stops, first." But Aura was weakening, and they both knew it.  
  
"Is one of them Norsti?" Salo asked her. His dark eyes glinted with the gleam of success.  
  
Aura scowled, taken aback. The Norsti elves were very secretive, this man shouldn't have known about their existence.  
  
"Maybe." Aura wouldn't tell them more, but her mind was made up. "We leave at noon tomorrow. You're responsible for you're own supplies." She turned to leave, then spun back, frowning, to face Salo. She was a good foot and a half shorter than him, look up to meet his cold gaze.  
  
"You're pale skinned, you have silver hair, and you speak with an accent of one from around here," Aura told him bluntly. "You clearly belong to some tribe in Ice Wall. Why do you need a guide?"  
b  
Salo thought for a moment before answering. "It has been many years since I came to Ice Wall, and I never trespassed over this particular land." Aura nodded, unsatisfied, but willing to let it rest. For now.  
  
"Remember, noon tomorrow, or I leave without you." Aura turned once again and padded across the wooden floors to the hallway that led to the rooms. The kender followed behind, but notwithout first 'acquiring' several necklaces and a mug.  
  
The smaller figure removed his hood at long last, proving Aura to be right in her guess. His elven features were sharp and plain, contrasting with his dark, mystical features. A slip of black could be seen around the edge of his over cloak. He lifted one slim, black eyebrow.  
  
Salo smiled. "Don't look at me like that, Dalamar." He rubbed his hands together slowly. "What I told her was true. The last time I was here, I not once laid foot on this ground." He stomped his boot on the floor for emphasis.  
  
The two strangers, one under the alias of the name Tarkis the elf, the other under the alias of Salo the human, went to the bartender to see about room reservations.  
  
Aura sat on her bed, legs crossed neatly ankle to knee. It was the ancient position long used by the Askins to summon gods. Ice Wall was the only place on Krynn that had never abandoned the gods. Deism was a fundemental part of their society and social order. Only the tribe headman Katulus sat above the preists in Council.  
  
She had shed her white, fluffy coat, revealing golden skin topped by long, chesnut hair that was wound into a knot as the base of her neck. Her skin was different from the brown of the Askins, and darker than those of the upper world. Smooth, long fingers rubbed her temples tiredly, shifting the the cat like shape of her green eyes.  
  
Aura had things to do, and she knew it. She needed to pack, to see the bartender about food, to make sure she remembered the way. But she was tired, unbearably so, and somehow the things she usually accomplished without blinking an eyebrow seemed tiresome and ardious. She sighed, a long, drawn out sigh, the one someone who had seen the world and found nothing of intrest. Except, perhaps, a certain pair of grey eyes.  
  
The kender sat on a chair, dangling his legs as he studied his new treasures. The kender was from the Upperworlds of Krynn, but had somehow managed to stow himself away one of the black winged ships heading to Hellsgate. It had been fivelong years since he had seen another of his race, but to him it was just a big adventure.  
  
Aura watched Jas for a few moments, jealousy creeping into her features as the carefree kender smiled happily at a tattered necklace, one that might once have been beautiful but was now most definitely junk.  
  
She swung her legs off the bed, reaching for her pack. Time to start working.  
  
  
  
Golden rays split through the window bars, landing as across on a snoring figures back. She was sprawled out over a map, her finger pointing tiredly, like a beaten down marker, to a small mountain.  
  
She yawned and stretched, basking like a cat in the morning sunlight. Traces of the red moon could still be seen over the mountains, shrouded in pearly clouds. Dimly, Aura became Aura of the creaking sound mattress springs make when bounced upon.  
  
"Oh, good, you're up!" Jas was clearly in a good mood (when wasn't he?) as he did flips in the air. "Salo stopped by, left his purse," the kender shook his head. "Really shouldn't do that, someone might take it." His thick brow furrowed in concentration. "He said to tell you something...but I forget..." Still contenplating, Jas returned to digging through the big mans purse.  
  
"I think what he was supposed to tell you was that we'd like to leave as soon as possible this morning." Aura jumped, turning to find Salo coming out of her wash room, towel wrapped around legs and head. The younger girl blushed slightly. "Ours didn't work," he explained apologetically, lightly pulling the wallet out of the kender's grasping hands. Blushing slightly himself, he realized towels had no pockets to speak of.  
  
Recomposing herself, and trying desperately not to giggle like a young girl, Aura frowned. "We can go as soon as you're...dressed." She lifted her eyebrows skeptically. "But it won't be very warm until a mark before noon."  
  
Salo grabbed the complementry robe, and wrapped it around his body. "Cold isn't a problem." His grey eyes glinted.  
  
"Maybe not for you, but their's your companion to consider." Drawing from the well known Askin daring, she added, "I've heard Silvensti elves don't take well to cold." One have her errands last night had been to the see the shipmaster that had taken the two strangers here.  
  
Salo rounded on her, his expression one of anger. Aura willed herself not to quiver. Slowly, his face changed into questioning, almost appraising look.  
  
"Well," he said slowly, rolling the words off his tongue. Too late, Aura saw the knife resting on the table by him. Seeing her gaze, he ran one large hand over the hilt with delibritation. "It seems I've misjudged you." He covered the room in two quick steps, and held the knife, shimmering, a bare inch from her neck. She lifted up her chin defiantly.  
  
"Pray, Aura Landsaber, that I do not do so again." With that, he gathered up his clothes and left, leaving Aura shaking with anger behind him.  
  
"Not a word of thanks!" Jas shrieked indignantly after the door clicked shut. "I went to all the trouble of protecting his things, and he snatched it out of my hands like I was a common theif!"   
  
  
  
Far away, much further into the land of ice, sat a spiraling white tower. It was tall and narrow, reaching up to the dark clouds. A spinning puff of black, looking like a forbidding void, rested around the tower's peak, though the rest of the sky was a pearly blue. It looked as magnificent as any elven structure, but it was different somehow, much, much older.  
  
A lone figure stood on on of the balconies, black robes billowing around him as though in disgust of the beautiful morning. The man himself looked annoyed, his golden arms resting heavily on the wall as his strange, hourglass eyes pondered the sleety world around him.  
  
Another figure appeareded on the deck, this one shrouded in long, silver hair. Despite the the frigid coldness of both the air and the company, she wore only a light sheath.  
  
"Why," the man began, not even turning to see to woman, "did he defeat me? Me, the master of both past and present?" His voice was course and throaty.  
  
The woman's voice cut through the winter like a light song, but one that sang of sorrow and despair instead of joy. "And he is the master of the future."  
  
The man scowled. "That is his weakness." His anger erupted into coughs.  
  
"As it is yours." Her voice held no emotion, just the simple stating of facts. She watched him through silver eyes as the man continued coughing.  
  
Finally he staightened, and turned to her. For once, his eyes saw no decay. "When's your brother coming?" he rasped. The coughing reemerged. The woman regarded him with a facade of total indifference, though internally there was a feirce battle fought between mind and heart.  
  
"By the rise of the white moon," the woman told him when he stopped coughing. "Already with him is your former apprentice and the Speaker's grandaughter, he has yet to meet elven princess."  
  
"Good, good." The mage mused quietly to himself. "With their help, and yours, he can be defeated." His strange eyes glinted. "And, by my hand, he will." 


End file.
